Long old poke for Carlisle this week. Met a bloke when in Folkestone last week who happened to sit on the table next to me at Dinner. He was wearing a tee shirt with a Carlisle logo on it and I was in my own Argyle tee shirt. We had a bit of a chat and he was telling me that he writes a column for the local Rag on football and has followed them for years as a fan. He has been to Plymouth a load of times over the years and has interviewed many an Argyle Manager. He was about to do one with Luggy when Southampton came calling and he left before the interview took place. I commiserated with him regarding this weeks score and result................. Anyway, this is yet another one that we ought to win. However, the record on those that we ought to win so far has not been the greatest in football history. I'm going to stick my neck out and say we will win this one as Carlisle don't travel that well even if their home results are better. Don't let me down you Greens. COYG
In will be in my usual seat with my green jammies on. It just happens to be 7am here. Getting colder now just West of the Rocky Mountains. Winter Tyres only on the Mtn. Passes. must carry chains.
Injury updates. Byron Moore has been training all week and will be available for Saturday. Conor Grant out with a thigh problem. Ryan Taylor and Dom Telford both out with Hamstring problems...but Telford not far away from being fit. Plus....Danny Mayor unavailable because of suspension.
Palmer, Riley, Wootton, Canavan, Sawyer, McFadzean, Sarcevic, Edwards, George Cooper, Joel Grant, Rudden. Subs. Michael Cooper, Aimson, Moore, Billy Clarke, Randell, Josh Grant, Wilson.
It seems that Baxter and Lolos have been added to the injury list. Aimson only on the bench....is he carrying an injury as well ?
Not as much of a struggle as one might think Plym. I thought today's win was both well deserved and fairly comfortable. There were a number of decent performances in the team and for me the MOM would be Sarcevic who I believe tries so much and puts in 100% every match. Also worth a mention was Cooper and Grant (one). Palmer looked reasonably comfortable between the posts even if there were a couple of "moments". The Ref did well enough for most of the match before he started to forget there were two teams on the pitch and only one of them was worth penalising. The linos gave more off sides today than the whole of last season between them. Most were spot on even if they were a little behind play at times. A couple of the bookings were harsh for me and he wasn't even handed with when to brandish them. Overall a good day at the office and we should be pleased with the outcome. Exeter lost which seemed to be a source of much amusement with a lot of Greens and we have moved up to 8th in the league. Matters not where we are now but it does look much better. Roll on Tuesday evening even if the opposition for that one did win 0 - 4 away today.
Always iffy whilst it's only 1-0....and with last years defence playing....it only takes one mistake.
Carlisle though reminded me a bit like Argyle. Fluffed chances and passes quite regularly today. We just did it less so hence it wasn't as much a struggle as you may think.
My Brother thought we were good for 3pts but Carlisle were poor. Next up is Leyton then up to Exeter. he did wave to you, but 16 of you waved back. Lol
He obviously goes to the same bars that I do BC. Mind you I learned not to wave at strange men when I was in the RN.
Not the most entertaining of games or the best performance. I last went to the Cheltenham game and to my mind we played better then but lost. Nevertheless, as Sensible says, this was never really going to end other than with Argyle winning. No game of two halves this but rather a game of 4 quarters. When we weren't playing well it was just scrappy. When we were playing well, we were so much better than them it was embarrassing. I don't think there was a shot on target in the 1st quarter but then Joel Grant forced the ball home from point blank range after a shot was parried, For the rest of the half, Argyle bossed it in style. We repeated that pattern in the 2nd half: Carlisle had a lot of the ball early on but made very little of it. The after match radio report said they hit the bar twice and so they did. However, the first was just a loopy shot from long, long distance which creased the top of the bar harmlessly on its way out. The second was a cross-shot from an extremely tight angle which was struck with venom but again merely grazed the top of the bar on its way out. Given the tight angle, Palmer would have almost certainly blocked if it wasn't too high. The crowd then decided things needed to change and started making a lot of noise, basically sucking Argyle down to the Devonport End. We finished very strongly and fully deserved a stonking goal from Sarcevic, struck viciously and hissing in along the side netting. When he hits them, they stay hit, Cooper stepped in for Mayor in a way that gives you confidence that we are not a one man team. Together with the excellent Joe Edwards and Man of the Match Antoni Sarcevic, the midfield was ours. Rudden was lively although his decision making was occasionally awry. He needs to have the confidence to take a pop now and then and not look for a final pass to someone else. Joel Grant didn't have the best game I've seen from him but scored and worked hard. Byron Moore looked not quite ready when he came on but Billy Clarke looked a live wire with one lovely little bit of skill and movement towards the end. Riley was the better of the wing-backs and the defence was OK against a poor Carlisle side. Palmer only made one save of note I think, which tells you Carlisle weren't at the races, getting down low to his right at the near post in the 2nd half. His distribution was OK in terms of short passing but he's going to need to improve his longer kicking to make Ryan Lowe happy. Three points on the board and 2 wins and 2 draws from the last 5. We can do better though and have done so now and then. Hopefully a good crowd and only a few visiting fans on a Tuesday night can outweigh the New Manager factor against Orient. That would set it up nicely for next Saturday.
How did Palmer manage to get a booking.....obviously out side the penalty area ? Other than Lyndy does anyone know how long Billy Clarke's short term loan is for...or is it governed by our injury list ? His 10 minute cameo moment seemed to go down well from comments read around the sites.
I can only think it was something he said.............. One thing I forgot to say is how well the Argyle front 7 harassed Carlisle when the opposition had the ball. Often their back 3 were unable to play the ball out and there were nervy pass-backs to the keeper and long hoofs to nowhere except touch or the Argyle back 3. Much of the possession Carlisle look as if they had was when they did manage to get the ball up to the half way line only to be pushed all the way back to the keeper again.
